Container and tank hire firm Swire Oilfield Services has reported a £3.7 million loss for the 2015 year to December after taking a £4.1 million hit on an shelved IT software project.

The London-registered company – part of John Swire & Sons Ltd – has its North Sea operating base in Aberdeen which opened in 2012 following a £4 million investment.

Accounts now filed with Companies House show turnover dropped 9.5 per cent to £31.03 million.

On an operating level, the company posted a loss of £3.72 million, despite cost of sales being cut to £15.6 million (2014: £20.7 million) which lifted gross profits 14 per cent to £15.3 million.

Gross profit margin also rose to 49 per cent from 39 per cent in 2014.

However administrative expenses jumped 29 per cent to £25.7 million (2014: £19.9 million), including a £4.1 million IT impairment charge following a decision to “postpone further investment in the partly implemented project”.

Stripping out the effects of the one-off IT impairment, administrative expenses still rose more than eight per cent to £21.6 million.

Swire notes other operating income also fell 14 per cent in the year to £6.6 million, leaving an overall pre-tax loss of £3.7 million against a pre-tax profit of £1.5 million reported for the 2014 year.

The company notes a re-measurement of the deficit in its defined pension scheme, which was closed to future accruals in December 2015, added another £4.3 million impairment charge to overall losses, leaving an after tax loss for the year of £7.2 million and after taking a £1.6 million curtailment gain on the pension scheme closure.

Swire notes it raised £10 million from issuing new shares in the 2015 year.

The company employed 202 people on average in 2015, down from 258 in 2014.